The Health Disparities Fellowship Program was developed to enhance the number and capacity of investigators dedicated to Health Disparities Research. Reflecting this program objective, Dr. Ramos with her mentor, has developed a three-part project. This project reflects the multi-factorial nature of prevalence of disparate health outcomes. Dr. Ramos is working on a draft manuscript which is a compilation of the published evidence regarding the ?disconnect? in capacity of US healthcare providers to deliver biomedical advances and the actual delivery of these advances in the typical healthcare setting. The second project (commenced in early 2006) was an assessment NHANES data over a 15 year period examining the increase in weight of women of reproductive age. The hypothesis of interest is that this increase is concomitant with the increase in childhood obesity and risk for Type 2 diabetes. The third project (commencing in the year 2006-2007) is a collaborative effort investigating the aforementioned hypothesis in a local birth cohort. The collaborators involve other investigators at NIEHS, NICHD, and EPA.